I was recently at a customer site and, while discussing the topic of this post, I noticed a book displayed prominently on the bookshelf behind my colleague entitled “Project Management Using Earned Value” by Gary Humphreys. It is a book that I have on my shelf as well and is required reading by personnel in my company.
I told my colleague: “One of the problems with our ability to define IPM is the conceit embedded in the title of that book behind you.”
My colleague expressed some surprise at my intentionally provocative comment, but he too felt that EVM had taken on a role that was beyond its intent, and so asked for more clarification. Thus, this post is meant to flesh out some of these ideas.
But before I continue, here was my point: while the awkward wording of the title unintentionally creates a syllogism that can be read as suggesting that applying earned value will result in project management–a invalid conclusion based on a specious assumption–there are practitioners who would lend credence to that idea.
Some History in Full Disclosure
Before I begin some full disclosure is in order. When I was on active duty in the United State Navy I followed my last mentor to the Pentagon, who felt that my perspective on acquisition and program management would be best served on the staff of the Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Technology, which subsequently also came to include logistics.
The presence of a uniformed member of the Armed Forces was unusual for that staff at the time (1996). My boss, Dan Czelusniak, a senior SES who was a highly respected leader, program manager, engineer, thought leader, and, for me, mentor, had first brought me on his staff at the U.S. Navy Naval Air Systems Command in PEO(A), and gave me free reign to largely define my job.
For that assignment I combined previously separate duties, taking on the job as Program Manager of an initiative to develop a methodology of assessing technical performance measurement, as Business Manager of the PEO which led me to the use of earned value management and its integration with other program indicators and systems, the development of a risk assessment system for the programs in the PEO for the establishment of a DoD financial management reserve, support to the program managers and their financial managers in the budget hearing process, and as CIO for the programs in identifying and introducing new information technologies in their support.
While there, I had decided to retire from the service after more than 22 years on active duty, but my superiors felt that I had a few more ideas to contribute to the DoD, and did what they could to convince me to stay on a while longer. Having made commitments in my transition, I set my date in the future, but agreed to do the obligatory Pentagon tour of duty to cap my career. Dan had moved over to Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Technology (USD(A&T)) and decided that he wanted me on the OUSD(A&T) staff.
As in PEO(A), Mr. Czelusniak gave me the freedom to define my position with the approval of my immediate superior, Mr. Gary Christle. I chose the title as Lead Action Officer, Integrated Program Management. Mr. Christle, who was a brilliant public servant and thought leader as well, widely heralded in the EVM community, asked me with a bemused expression, “What is integrated program management?” I responded: “I don’t know yet sir but I intend to find out.” Though I did not have a complete definition, I had a seed of an idea.
My initiatives on the staff began with an exploration of data and information. My thinking along these lines early in my career were influenced by a book entitled “Logistics in the National Defense” by retired Admiral Henry E. Eccles, written in 1959. It is a work that still resonates today and established the important concept that “logistics serves as the bridge between a nation’s economy and its forces and defines the operational reach of the joint force commander.” The U.S. Army site referenced for this quote calls him the Clausewitz of logistics.
Furthermore my work as Program Manager of the Technical Performance Management project, and earlier assignments as program manager of IT and IM projects, provided me with insights into the interrelationships of essential data that was being collected as a matter of course in R&D efforts that would provide the basis for a definition of IPM.
In concluding my career on the OSD staff, I produced two main products, among others: a methodology for the integration of technical performance risk in project management performance, and the policy of moving toward what became the DoD-wide policy for an Integrated Digital Environment (IDE). This last initiative was produced with significant contributions from the staff of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Command, Control, Communications, and Intelligence (C3I) as well as additional work by my colleague on the A&T staff, Reed White.
Products from IDE included the adoption of the ANSI X12 839 transaction set. Its successors, such as the DCARC UN/CEFACT XML and other similar initiatives are based on that same concept and policy, though, removed by many years, the individuals involved may be only vaguely aware of that early policy–or the controversy that had to be overcome in its publication given its relatively common sense aspects from today’s perspective.
The Present State
Currently there are at least four professional organizations that have attempted to tackle the issue of integrated program and project management. These are the Project Management Institute, NDIA’s Integrated Program Management Division, the College of Performance Management, and the American Association of Cost Engineers. There are also other groups focused in systems engineering, contracting, and cost estimating that contribute to the literature.
PMI is an expansive organization and, oftentimes, the focus of the group is on aspirational goals by those who wish to obtain a credential in the discipline. The other groups tend to emphasize their roots in earned value management or cost engineering as the basis for a definition of IPM. The frustration of many professionals in the A&D and DoD world is that the essential input and participation of the program manager to define the essential data needed to define IPM, which goes beyond the seas of separation that define islands of data and expertise is missing.
Things didn’t used to be this way.
When I served at NAVAIR and the Pentagon the jointly-sponsored fall Integrated Program Management Conference held in Tyson’s Corner, Virginia, would draw more than 600 attendees. Entire contingents from the military systems commands and program offices–as well as U.S. allied countries–would attend, lending the conference a synergy and forward-looking environment not found in other venues. Industries outside of aerospace and defense would also send representatives and contribute to the literature.
As anyone engaged in a scientific or engineering effort can attest, sharing expertise and perspectives among other like professionals from both industry and government is essential to developing a vital, professional, and up-to-date community of knowledge.
During the intervening years the overreaction of the public and the resulting political reaction to a few isolated embarrassing incidents at other professional conferences, and constraints on travel and training budgets, has contributed to a noticeable drop in attendance at these essential venues. But, I think there is also an internal contributing factor within the organizations themselves. That factor is that each views itself and its discipline as the nexus of IPM. Thus, to PMI, a collection of KPIs are the definition of IPM. To CPM and NDIA IPMD, earned value management is the link to IPM, and to AACEI Total Cost Management is the basis for IPM.
All of them cannot be correct and none possesses an overwhelming claim.
The present state currently finds members of each of these groups–all valuable subject matter experts, leaders, and managers in their areas of concentration–essentially talking to themselves and each other, insulated in a bubble. There is little challenge in convincing another EVM SME that EVM is the basis for the integration of other disciplines. What is not being done is making a convincing case to program managers based on the merits.
A Modest Recommendation
Subsequent to the customer meeting that sent me to, once again, contemplate IPM, Gordon Kranz, President of Enlightened Integrated Program Management LLC posted the following question to LinkedIn:
Integrated Program Management – What is it? Systems Engineering? Earned Value Management? Agile Development? Lean? Quality? Logistics? Building Information Modeling? …
He then goes on to list some basic approaches that may lead to answering that question. Still the question exists.
Mr. Kranz was the Deputy Director for Earned Value Management policy at the Office of the Secretary of Defense from 2011-2015. During his term in that position I witnessed more innovation and improved relations between government and industry, which resulted in process improvements in accountability and transparency, than I had seen come out of that office over the previous ten years. He brings with him a wealth of knowledge concerning program management from both government and private industry. Now a private consultant, Gordon’s question goes to the heart of the debate in addressing the claims of those who claim to be the nexus of IPM.
So what is Integrated Project or Program Management? Am I any closer to answering that question than when Gary Christle first asked it of me over twenty years ago?
I think so but I abstain in answering the question, but only because in the end it is the community of program management in their respective verticals that must ultimately answer it. Only the participation and perspectives of practicing program managers and corporate management will determine the definition of IPM and the elements that underlie it. Self-interested software publishers, of which I am one, cannot be allowed to define and frame the definition, as much as it is tempting to do so.
These elements must be specific and must address the most recent misunderstandings that have arisen in the PM discipline, such as that there is a dichotomy between EVM and Agile–a subject fit for a different blog post.
So here is my modest recommendation: that the leaders of the program management community from the acquisition organizations in both industry and government–where the real power to make decisions resides and where the discussions that sparked this blog post began–find a sponsor for an IPM workshop that addresses this topic, with the goal of answering the core question. Make no mistake–despite my deference in this post, I intend to be part of the conversation in defining that term. But, in my opinion, no one individual or small group of specialized SMEs are qualified to do so.
Furthermore, doing so, I believe, is essential to the very survival of these essential areas of expertise, particularly given our ability to deploy more powerful information systems that allow us to process larger sets of data. The paradox of more powerful processing of bigger data results in a level of precision that reveals the need for fewer, not more, predictive indicators and less isolated line-and-staff specialized expertise. Discovery-driven project management is here today, bridging islands of data, and providing intelligence in new and better ways that allow for a more systemic approach to project management.
Thus, in this context, a robust definition of Integrated Project Management is an essential undertaking for the discipline.
Life, Project Management, and Everything 